Insurance plan of City of London, 1886

This fire insurance plan was designed by Charles Goad in 1886. It shows the area around St Paul’s Cathedral in London. The purpose of the map was to assess the risk of fire in the area, and to determine the potential for damage. The greater the risk, the higher the cost of insurance.

The map identifies all kinds of essential information: street widths, property numbers, property owners and businesses (we can see, for example, a jeweller, an umbrella factory, a furrier, and a bookbinder). Goad has used a colour coding system to classify different types of building: brick buildings are shown in red, wooden buildings in yellow, stone buildings in dark blue, low level skylights in light blue, and high level skylights in purple. All this information helped insurers to determine the likelihood of fire, and the potential for damage.

Taken from: Insurance plan of City of LondonAuthor / Creator: Goad, CharlesDate: 1886Copyright: By permission of the British Library BoardShelfmark: Maps 145.b.22